The volley between Chip Ganassi Racing and Arrow McLaren SP has begun.

After announcing Alex Palou will return to drive the championship-winning No. 10 CGR Honda in 2023, only to have McLaren Racing announce it had signed the Spaniard to drive for one of its unspecified teams in 2023, the first formal comment from the two organizations on the matter has been received.

According to an official team statement from CGR, “We can confirm Alex Palou is under contract with the team through 2023.”

Ganassi has recently signaled its intention to retain Palou and moved to publicly formalize that earlier today when it announced that it had taken up an option on his contract. However Palou has aligned himself with McLaren, and moved to distance himself from his current team’s announcement by means of a series of posts on his social media accounts.